Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-12-25
DEAD TO THE WORLD.
THE SOLEMN SCENES IN A CARNBLITB
CONVENT.
The Immaculate Vows Of the Inmates and the Faces
Of Nuns Never Ssen-A Wonderful
Song Of the ClOister.
y u III GLOBE.

s.. p III Globe.
On the same road as the Convent OF
Jesus and Mary, just across, stands GRIM
building with a very high, thick wall.
have never seen so iinpassable a wall
around a prison as this which confines In
mates who hare imposed a life sentence on
themselves, writes Garth Grafton in the
Week. The building is the worldly face
Of the clustered cells of the Carmelites,
and the wall is built about their garden.
And this is the only Carmelite convent IN
America. 10 Spain, in France, IN Italy,
there are Others, but not on this continent.
The order has existed here (Montreal
since 1875 only. The money to establish
it was given by Mime. Fremont, OF Quebec,
and the French Carmelite fOndatrice, who
came from Paris, il dead now. 80 are All
of her sisters except three. The severity OF
their lives in our rigorous limit Killed
them. There are - now ciolstered here,
but II are French Canadians.
You know, Of course, what it means TO
take the vows OF a Carmelite. Ii means
the most literal announcement of the world
possible TO human being. The face OF the
C.rmeli.e nun is never seen after her en-
trance except by her immediate relatives,
and then only for half an hour once a
month, through heavy gIa'ings. Her
hand is never touched saved by her sisters.
| From behind the little door that Is barred
npOn her the day "i parting with our
| pleasant world she never cones agaln.
Her cell is OF this barest; she sleeps ON \
mattress with one c0verIet. Her diet IL OF
the poorest, and LGc.It never enters it. Her
habit is of coarse brown cloth, with q veil
of a similar color and kind, and she wears
sandals on her feet. Her occupation ls
prayer and penance, and the making oil
church decorations. She il a 'fayOrlte
SOUL
We ring. anu the sound reverherates
within, hollow and chill. A man dressed
like those of the convent opposite opens
the door, and, after a whispered confer
ence with our French friend, admits us.
The hall we stand in is narrow, cold and
il~l-ventilated, and we shivrr as we pass
along to a small, bare room with an open
ing in the wall about four feet square.
| FIR IN the iron bars which guard II pro-
iect spikes half a foot long. On the other
side of the opening is another barred net
work, and behind that hangs a black veil.
The room is in semi. darkness, but we
can read above the spikes and bars the
words:
Au Carmel CONNIE Ct jugemcnt
Dieul SCul ct moi.
They strike through the Stiffness upon
ones consciousness like n text OF hall
comprehended truth. Dieu scul ct moi .
There is q ring of awful sOlemnity about
that. This is where the Carmelite comes
TO get her pitiful sight Of some Que she
loved in the days before she became a IA
voritc SOUL and these are the bars through
which that loved one strains aching eyes
for the tortured glimpse OF the rrcIuse.
Through double bars-and then the tears +,
MARK well and consider, all you who pass
this way run printed text upon the
wall, ''is there any sorrow like my sor-
row.
Yes, we may have speech with one of
the nuns, the sister who lets rs in comes
to tell us. This is hy the grace Of the
French lapy, who is in high favor in her
church. But not here. So We are con-
Quoted Ia another little room, where a cir
cular shelf r~evOlves in the wall for the ad-
mission OF necesslries to the hospital. Be
hind thisstands the nun, Madame addresses
her. We cannot. We have Il kind OF fear
rs to what we might say, over CONVERSE
tinn being in the world. We shrink from
the possible proclamation of the strange
| ..I,-- A.. ,,,,l a., lc. l.hipl
these thrice mOrtared gray walls. But
madame does not shrink. She addressed
the shelf with q sort of reverentiaI gayety,
il there is such a thing, and inquiries for
the health Of INA scar
And in trcmulOus tones the nun re-
spends that she is very well-0h, very
well, indeed, and is madame we'll! How
her voice shakes as they talk in French,
madame turning occasionally to tell US
that the supcriOress is very i'll; that if we
desire the prayers of the Il we may have
them; that the garden has not been very
successful this year. 1t is n great license,
this of cOnversing with strangers behird a
heavy partition, and she must be very,
very mindful not to forget for an instant
that these are not ''favOrite souls" And
she can speak in English? Yes, hut can
We?
care you happy, ma swur?' fllt"r.
81 am most happy comes the answer
in a quiet cadence.
"And when YOU die" ma swur, where
are you buried?" | query.
an the vault below" she responded,
and | fancy | do detect a trace OF hopeful
ness in the way she says this.
Do they sell the things they make? Oh,
yes, and if we wish to buy some will I've put
on the shelf. And presently 4 box Of wax
flowers is pushed slowly around-pansies
and camelias and roses, white and red, eX-
quisitely wrought. How much? For the
roses, 3 or & cents apiece; for the pansies, 3
cents. And after getting change for the
price OF our souvenirs she is distressed that
we will not take the two or three cOppers
that are due us.
1t is late in the afternoon when we 60
again through the narrow hall TO the door,
yet we must have a look at the chapel on
the other side. So through another long
passage we follow our guide, and into the
rather empty, drcary and bare editice,
where n candle or two burns dimly, and
we can just make out the figures Of a few
bead-telling wOrshippers. As we stand ST.
lent n sOund-a sOng-a Girge sweeps
through the gloom from somewhere behind
the altar and beyond the movable. II
sinks and swells in its ineXrressible
monrnfulness, rs waves might beat on n
desolate coast. 1t is the call-the cry
the chant OF the Carmelite nuns.